


The Most Awesome Arcanist

by MeganMoonlight



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Cookies, Cute, Dragon Age Kink Meme, Dwarf/Elf Relationship(s), F/F, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Getting Together, Gift Giving, Rare Pairings, Secret Admirer, Sweet, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-12
Updated: 2015-05-12
Packaged: 2018-03-30 06:14:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3925945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeganMoonlight/pseuds/MeganMoonlight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone was leaving sweet, thoughtful gifts for Dagna. When she found out who it was, she decided to do something about it. It would be amazing!</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Most Awesome Arcanist

Dagna was walking around the Undercroft, making sure all the equipment worked perfectly.

She had woken up even earlier than usually – doesn’t matter what Harritt thought about it, she actually liked getting up early - to fix the Craft Armor Table, which accidentally suffered some damage the day before, after Dagna’s last experiment with Master Frost Runes. The blacksmith seemed to be dismayed when he heard a small explosion, but she assured him that she had everything under control and he didn’t have to worry at all. She had studied this equipment long enough to know what she was doing and she’d fix everything in no time.

She did, of course, even if it did take more time than she expected to replace some minor wooden hinges and cogs, and polish the crucial elements of the table. Then, just to be sure, she decided to examine the rest of their machinery as well.

When Harrit entered the Undercroft, she was just finishing cleaning her tools. He raised one eyebrow as he looked around, first at the repaired Craft Armor Table, then at Dagna, and shook his head.

“I told you I could have helped with it if you waited a few hours,” he stated as he sat down on the stairs. “Have you stayed here the whole night or something?”

Dagna put her hammer down and smiled at the man’s usual, irritated tone. She knew he wasn’t really mad or anything like that. Harritt was just used to doing everything by himself and fixing up himself. Even if, as he said, he had had apprentices and assistants in Haven, he was always in charge of everything and knew about everything that was going on. Old habits die hard.

“You needed to sleep after working on the armor for the Inquisitor, and I told you I know how to handle all of this, so it wasn’t a problem,” she patted the crafting table gently, smiling at the human.

He rolled his eyes, but nodded, not saying anything. After that they settled into their daily routines, Dagna working on Runes and weapon improvement, Harritt on cataloging newly acquired schematics for armors and weapons.

A few hours later, when Dagna focused on improving the connection between the runes and the metals, she heard the Undercroft door opening, and the Inquisitor’s voice greeting them.

“Good morning. Can I use the storage?”

Dagna wiped her forehead with one glove, put down her file and chisel, and turned to look at him, smiling brightly. 

The Inquisitor was wearing his light armor and looked a bit tired. There was also a big bag hanging from his shoulder and she realized he probably just came back from a scouting mission.

“Oh course, Inquisitor!” she said and went to open the storage quickly. “How was your trip? Have you found anything for us? I think we could use more daggers and bows to work on. We recently found some old schematics for improving weapons for our rogues and we’d like to try them out. They all look very good on parchment, but we want to check if they don’t look weird finished.”

The Inquisitor blinked a couple of times, but nodded and opened his bag. He took out a small leather pouch, handing it to Dagna right away. “When I find something, I’ll bring it, no problem. We just got back from Crestwood and brought back a Lightning Rune. And I bought three blank runestones, just in case, if you needed more.”

“Thanks,” she opened the pouch and took out the runestones. They were of good quality, definitely. There were no signs of any flaws on them. 

While she inspected them, the Inquisitor apparently managed to unpack his bag already. “Oh, by the way, I found something by the door. It’s addressed for you,” he said and she looked up at him, quizzically. Well, that was strange. “I haven’t opened it, but from the feel of it, it doesn’t seem to be dangerous. There are no traces of magic on it as well, so I just brought it in.”

The pouch was linen and a bit bigger than the one from the Inquisitor, but definitely lighter. Indeed her name was unevenly scribbled on an attached piece of dark, a bit crumpled, parchment. She untied it gently. Cookies. Someone had brought her cookies.

She looked up at the Inquisitor, who looked as surprised as she was. “Don’t look at me. I have no idea how to cook, much less how to bake anything,” he said.

Dagna took out one cookie and inspected it. It had pieces of some kind of fruit in it and seemed to be a bit burnt on the underside, but it didn’t look bad. She took a bite and… the cookie looked better than it tasted, really, but it wasn’t too bad. Even if the fruit was sweet, the cookie itself was a bit bitter, but she decided to eat the rest of it.

After she finished eating, she went to put the pouch on one of the crafting tables. She noticed the Inquisitor was still looking at her, probably waiting for some kind of reaction. It seemed like he might have been holding his breath, but, mostly, he just looked curious.

“Well they… don’t taste like poison, I think. Would you like one?”

“Right, that’s good. And no, thank you. I ate a bit too much already,” the Inquisitor scratched his beard with one hand, then picked up his bag. “Great. I should get back to work, I think. Dorian and Lady Montilyet are probably waiting for me already. I’ll let you know as soon as I find any bows or daggers, okay? Have a good day.”

Dagna watched him send them a quick wave and close the door after himself. Harritt didn’t even acknowledge anything, still sitting in the corner, studying schematics.

The linen pouch was lying on the table. What could it mean? Who could have left it for her? Well, that was just weird.

***

The cookies, however, were not the only gift Dagna received. For the next two weeks she received three more, each different and to some extent hand-made. And figuring out who was leaving them was actually not as difficult after she received the second gift.

It was left in front of the door to her room.

That day Dagna had spent a few hours with Sera. First they had went to the training grounds, her friend asking her to watch her shoot. After Sera had gotten used to her new bow, which was much lighter than her previous one and easier to grip when she was moving, every one of her arrows had hit the target perfectly. She had been ecstatic and clapped Dagna on the back with a smile. 

Soon Sera had decided they needed some fun and hiding cockroaches in people’s clothes seemed like a good idea to her at the time, and Dagna couldn’t help feeling a bit curious. She had never hidden any bugs in people’s belongings before. In the end they hadn’t got far with the plan, since Leliana had caught Sera trying to hide one cockroach in Lady Montilyet’s scarf, and it was definitely a time for a retreat. Leliana could be really scary when she wanted to be, and apparently Sera thought the same.

After Dagna got back to her room, she couldn’t help smiling. Spending time with Sera never failed to improve her mood. When she got to her door it was hard not to notice something standing there. It was a bottle. She picked it up and looked around, but no one seemed to be looking in her direction.

It was a small bottle of what she assumed was wine, with red, green and yellow threads tied in a slightly crooked bow around the bottleneck. A colorful, hand-made label was really stood out. There was a name of the wine there, and a drawing of fruits Dagna couldn’t really identify, but she assumed those were fruits the wine was made of. It was… rather nice. Someone must have really taken a lot of time to draw it.

She looked around again. There always were people in this corridor, so Dagna assumed someone had to see something at some point. She noticed Dorian standing at the end of the corridor, talking to a tall warrior with blond hair. Only after she came closer she noticed the warrior was a human she had seen the Inquisitor talking to, sometime after he had been back from Emprise du Lion. 

“I’m sorry, hi,” she stepped closer and both men turned to look at her, a smile appearing on Dorian’s face. “Have you been standing here for long?”

“Ah, good afternoon, Dagna,” Dorian said and smiled at her and the warrior whose name she didn’t know nodded in greeting. “And no, not really, I’m afraid. I just stopped here on the way to the library,” he said, leaning against the wall. “Why? Has something happened?”

“Oh, no, not really,” Dagna smiled, reassuring him and tightening the grip on the bottle a little bit. “I was just wandering,” she added quickly. Well, if she didn't find out who was leaving the gifts for her by herself, at some point she would have to ask someone for help. Maybe Dorian wouldn’t mind, if she failed? Maybe she should ask later…

“Of course. If you say so,” Dorian answered finally, pulling her out of her thoughts. He still looked a bit suspicious.

“Thank you anyway,” she nodded at them both and went back to her room. 

After she closed the door and sat down on the bed, she looked at the bottle again. Only when inspecting the whole label again, she noticed small scribbles on the bottom of the paper. _Tastes sweet. Better than cookies._

Dagna read the words twice more. Why this handwriting seemed so familiar? She bit her lip, looking at the pictures of the fruits. She had a feeling she had seen a similar writing not so long ago, but she couldn’t really recall much. Who would have known that she drank only sweet wine…

And suddenly, it hit her. Of course. There was only one person to whom Dagna talked about wine and who talked about cookies. She couldn’t help smiling when she suddenly realized who the gifts were from. It looked like she didn’t have to ask for Dorian’s help after all.

Well, yes, Dagna wasn’t a fan of wine overall, but this one tasted very good, especially with roasted vegetables.

***

The third gift was smaller, but it was handed to her in person.

Dagna couldn’t help smiling when she thought about all the gifts he had received and she couldn’t wait to talk to Sera about them, but her friend had gone to the Exalted Plains with the Inquisitor, the Iron Bull, and Dorian. According to what Leliana had told her, they probably wouldn’t be back for the next two days. It had given Dagna some time to actually think about what would she say to Sera and wonder how this conversation would look. She had a lot of ideas about that, actually.

And now Dagna was sitting in Herald’s Rest, opposite to the door to Sera’s room. The Inquisitor contacted Leliana to let her know that they would be back soon, and Dagna decided to wait for Sera in the tavern, hoping the other woman would be there soon. 

No one has ever given Dagna any hand-made gifts before and she wasn’t really sure what that meant or how to react to that, really. She knew Runes and enchanting, and she knew how to prepare an armor so it would work with every Rune she could find. However, because she mostly focused on studying magic, something other dwarves were not interested in at all, she was spent a lot of time by herself, reading. It was her passion.

Thanks to the help from the Warden she had found friends within the Ferelden’s Circle of Magi, people who had helped her to achieve her goals, never minded answering her questions and liked to talk to her about magic. However, as much as she enjoyed spending time and talking to them all, Sera was the first person, besides the Warden, who made her feel like she could do everything she wanted. Already after their first conversation, Sera along with Dorian and the Inquisitor came to the Undercroft right after she had come to Skyhold, had offered to kick the ass of anyone who had a problem with Dagna’s choices, even if she didn’t understand them herself. It made Dagna feel… special. Even if Sera was not a fan of magic and kept reminding Dagna of that, she still talked to her and kept bringing her new schematics and ideas for enchanted weapons. Sera was a really good friend. But was there something else to that?

Or maybe Dagna was just overreacting because she hasn’t been in a similar situation before. One way or another, the gifts meant Sera was listening to her and cared about her, right? 

Dagna took a sip of wine and soon heard familiar voices coming from the entrance to the tavern. Sera, followed by Iron Bull and his lieutenant, Krem, were laughing loudly, Sera gesticulating vigorously, while Iron Bull kept grinning.

“This frigging bastard was huge! And he talked back! You saw how he was runnin’?”

“Sure did. I bet Boss had fun freezing him to the ground so he would give back the money.”

“I still think we should’ve kicked his ass more, though,” Sera said and stretched her arms above her head. Then she spun around and the smile on her face widened even more. “Dagna! Hey!”

She jumped up the stairs, leaving Iron Bull and Krem talking to each other. In a few jumps she was next to Dagna’s table and sat down on the opposite chair. They only just got back and it looked like Sera still had a lot of energy. “How are you doin’?”

“Good. Thank you,” Dagna smiled and looked down at her tankard, biting her lip. “I… I was waiting for you, actually. I want to talk. If you have time, that is.”

“Sure. What about?” Sera replied, while snagging the tankard from Dagna’s hands and drinking from it. Even while she wiped her mouth with her sleeve, she did not take her eyes off her.

“I got your bottle of wine,” Dagna looked up.

“It ‘s awesome, innit?” Sera waggled her eyebrows at that. “At first it’s totally weird, like someone put stinky socks in there or something, but when you drink more it’s, wow!”

Dagna frowned at the mental image, but decided not think about it too much. “It was good. The label was nice, too.”

Sera grinned brightly when she said it, so Dagna exhaled, relieved. But then they just started talking again and asking about what the gifts meant disappeared from Dagna’s mind for a while. At least until Sera grabbed her hand and dragged to her room, saying that she had something else to show her. Dagna didn’t say anything, just let herself be led until she was sitting on a colorful pile of pillows. Sera seemed to have more and more of them every time Dagna visited her, really.

“Here,” After digging it up from between the pillows on the other side of the small room, Sera handed her a piece of a material. “You said your other one was crap, so I found you a frilly, fancy one. I even washed it and stuff.”

Dagna looked at the material. It was a bright pink handkerchief, with her name unevenly sewed in with a thick red thread in the corner. Short threads of varying lengths were coming out of each letter, but it still looked very nice. And it was also incredibly soft.

“You didn’t have to,” she looked up, but Sera just shrugged, sitting cross legged on the pillows next to her. “I mean, you already gave me the wine, and cookies. I mean, I don’t really know what to do for you and…”

“Don’t be stupid. They’re gifts! You’re supposed to say “thank you” and have fun with ‘em.”

Dagna bit her lower lip and looked at the handkerchief again, then wrapped her arms around Sera and squeezed lightly when Sera embraced her back. “Thank you,” she said before moving away. “Are you sure I can’t do anything…”

“Nah, it’s cool. Really. Don’t worry about that ‘cause you can get wrinkles on your forehead. Have you seen Lord Fancypants or Blackwall and their forehead wrinkles?”

“Do you really call the Inquisitor that?” Dagna asked, curious. She has heard her friend using that name a couple of times before, but only now started to wonder about it. She really had a hard time imagining Sera using it in front of the Inquisitor.

“Sure do. Why shouldn’t I? He doesn’t mind,” she shrugged, then jumped of the bed and in a swift move left the room. “I’ll bring something to drink! Don’t move!”

Dagna shook her head, but sat up more comfortably on the pillows and looked around the small room. Now that she thought about it she actually never _looked_ at this place when Sera was with her. It was small, but comfortable, and definitely not only because of dozens of pillows. 

What caught her attention was a rather thick book with various sheets of paper sticking out of it, laying on the floor, half hidden under one of the pillows. Sera was still not back, so Dagna bit her lip and gently opened the book, wondering what will she find there. She opened it at the end and the first thing she saw was a slightly crumpled page.

It was a drawing of Sera and Dagna, standing back to back, as if ready for a fight. Dagna was wielding a strange fusion of a long sword and an axe, its bits cut out so that they looked like teeth or claws, with an orb attached to the wedge. It was very big. Sera, one the other hand, had a bow with a small rune placed below the grip, huge spikes coming from grip itself and from above the arrow rest. Two longer spikes coming from each string grove made the bow look even bigger. Both figures had huge smiles on their faces.

Suddenly Dagna heard footsteps outside of the room and closed the book quickly, placing it right where she found it, then looking at Sera who just entered the room and handed her a big tankard with a smile.

“You can stay, right?”

“Yeah. I told Harritt where to find me if he or the Inquisitor need anything.”

They ended up talking about the trip to the Exalted Plains, but Dagna kept sneaking glances at the journal laying on the floor. She felt a bit guilty for snooping in Sera’s belongings, but in the end, she was glad she found it. Looked like she had a lot of work to do.

***

It took Dagna about a week between creating new weapons and upgrading the old ones for the Inquisitor, but when she finally looked at the finished bow, after checking the attachment to the grip and arrow rest made of volcanic aurum and bloodstone, she fell proud really of herself.

Since finding Sera'a drawing she read many bow schematics, almost every one they had available. She had also asked Dorian to find everything he could about bows in the library, and it took him about a day to bring her the books on enchanting weapons. She studied all of it, and after telling the Inquisitor and asking for resources, making him promise not to say anything to Sera, she managed to finish a bow, trying to make it as similar to the one she'd seen. But making it a bit more practical than the original.

She couldn't stop smiling and imagining Sera's reaction to the weapon. After all the gifts Sera has had given her and finding the drawing, she really hoped it would make her friend happy. And maybe then she’ll finally tell Sera how she feels about her.

Dagna inspected the bow again, checking every detail, and after wrapping it in an old cotton cloth she had found in one of her chests and telling Harritt that she'd be back, she went to find Sera.

The rogue was on the training ground, looking and laughing at Iron Bull and Krem, occasionally throwing small rocks at them, so that they hit Iron Bull every single time. Every once in a while the Qunari warrior looked in her direction, and Krem always managed to gracefully dodge each stone, smiling when they hit Iron Bull instead. It wasn’t easy to distract them.

"Ten points for hitting you in the head!"

Sera laughed and Dagna noticed a smile appearing on the Iron Bull's face as well, but he did not stop him from swinging his axe at Krem. Sera looked in Dagna’s direction and waved at her way, collecting more stones from the ground. 

"What's this?" Sera asked pointing at the parcel as soon as Dagna walked up to her. "It's huge."

Dagna smiled at the enthusiasm in Sera's voice, but then her friend groaned loudly, letting the rocks fall from her hand to the ground. "Shite, wait. Not good. I got something for you! Wait here, I'll get it, yeah?"

Dagna only nodded, surprised. One more gift? After all the other ones? Sera didn't have to give her anything else, but now that Dagna made something for her, too... well, Sera ran to the Herald's Rest anyway, not even waiting for Dagna’s reaction, so she could wait. She turned to look at Iron Bull and Krem, who were still fighting, one trying to distract the other. Dagna was sure those two could spend hours only practicing and training, without even taking a break.

When she heard footsteps, she turned to Sera, who was holding some sort of a wooden tablet in her hand and looked really proud of herself. She was ready to hand it to her, Dagna stopped her, wondering how to proceed.

She thought about what to say before she came over, but now that Sera was looking at her, she almost forgot everything. She hoped she did not make a mistake by making the weapon… 

"Remember when I stayed over after you got back from the Exalted plains?” she started and after Sera nodded, looking a bit confused, Dagna continued. “I found your journal and saw a picture you drew there. I hope you don’t mind?"

"S'fine. Why?"

Dagna looked up at her. "Well, you really did a lot for me so I got this idea and... I made this for you." She gave the wrapped bow to Sera, who looked at it, then at Dagna, with a look of wondering and curiosity. It was a really good look on her.

She watched as Sera unwrapped the material hurriedly and when she looked at the bow for the first time, touching it gently, she opened her mouth a bit.

"Shite! That's so… so badass!" She looked up at Dagna, her eyes almost glowing with excitement as she raised the weapon and touched the spikes with her fingers, smiling even wider as she inspected it.

"The spikes are not as large as they are on the drawing, because it probably would have been hard to keep your balance properly if they were too heavy, but I managed to do the rest. We had one Dragon-Slaying Rune around, and I hope you’ll like it."

"It looks awesome!"

They did not have any arrows with them, but Sera still took a hold of the bow, touched the bowstring slightly, taking a breath. "Fuck! I love that! I have to go on the mission so I can try it out!" she looked ready to run to the Inquisitor right then, but she groaned again, this time looking at the ground where she had left the tablet she brought from the tavern. "Oh, shite. Son of a… Fuck all this."

Dagna stepped closer to her, seeing Sera's furrowed brow made her worry. "Is something wrong? If you don't like it I could..."

"No, not that! Ugh. I hate this. I will take the bow and bring you a better present next time, or something," she said, snagging to tablet from the ground and hiding it behind her back, not really succeeding.

"Why?"

"'Cause s'not good?"

Dagna tilted her head. “Why?”

“’Cause it’s just not. There are no spikes or badass looking Runes,” Sera rolled her eyes, a bit irritated. Dagna bit her lip, and after a while, stepped closer to her friend, wrapping her fingers around Sera’s, so they both were holding the tablet now. She didn’t said anything, but when Sera looked at her, she sighed. “Fine, fine. Sure. But I’m telling you it’s not good.”

She handed over the tablet, still looking a bit unsure, and when Dagna turned it around, she couldn’t help smiling at the words she saw there. It was a sign with her name painted in yellow, red and green, with black, uneven letters. “Dagna: The Most Awesome Arcanist,” she read out loud and Sera shrugged, but there was a hint of the previous smile there, too.

“Well, you are, yeah? So all those tits should know, too. Blackwall helped me with the tablet, because carving this sucked. But I found paints and everything else,” she explained and probably wanted to say something else, but Dagna looked up at her, holding the sign with one hand, still smiling. 

Finally, she put the other hand on Sera’s shoulder and brought their lips together in a slow kiss. A very good kiss. A kiss that quickly become very enthusiastic, and Sera tried to bring her closer with one hand, not minding that Dagna still held the sign against her chest and Sera still held on to the bow.

She had no idea how long they had stood there, but Sera was the first one to break the kiss.

“It was… awesome,” Dagna murmured. 

Sera just smiled against her lips, before leaning in again. Talking could wait a bit longer.

***

Dagna just finished a new sword. It took her a few hours, but it looked really good. The new schematics really made it easier for her to properly mix metals, and the new Runes really made it look better.

She put her hammer and her gloves on the table and sat down, admiring her work. Someone will make a good use of it, she was sure of that. Letting out a breath, she decided to help Harritt clean up a bit, before leaving the Undercroft. When she stepped closer to the table again, her eye was caught by the red-yellow sign hanging above it, where the sunlight illuminated it perfectly. It was beautiful.

After Sera got back from her trip with the Inquisitor, Dagna will definitely ask her how she liked her new bow. She already couldn’t wait to hear all about it, as they snuggled together on the pillows in Sera’s room. It would be amazing.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [*THIS*](http://dragonage-kink.livejournal.com/13429.html?thread=51623285#t51623285) and [*THIS*](http://dragonage-kink.livejournal.com/14591.html?thread=54862847#t54862847) prompt at [Dragonage-Kink](http://dragonage-kink.livejournal.com/).
> 
> This prompt is absolutley lovely and I really couldn't resist writing something for it, even if it took me some time. I wasn't sure if I would do it justice, but I decided to try anyway, becuase I couldn't help it, someone had to write it. Sera and Dagna are both pretty much irresistible to me.  
> I really loved writing Sera, I introduced some of my headcanon for Dagna, and I love both of them to pieces.  
> I hope you will enjoy it, guys! And I'd appreciate your thoughts.
> 
> "Warm and Fuzzy Feelings" is exactly how I see those two! And it describes perfectly how I feel about them, too.
> 
> Thanks for beta to **[lil-1337](http://lil-1337.livejournal.com/)**.


End file.
